USA Network

USA Network launched on September 22, 1977, as the Madison Square Garden Sports Network, one of the first national sports cable channels. It rebranded to USA Network on April 9, 1980, shifting from all-sports to general entertainment. The channel was a joint venture between Madison Square Garden and UA-Columbia Cablevision. In 1981, Time Inc. and Paramount Pictures bought in, and by 1987 it was wholly owned by Gulf+Western, later Viacom. Seagram's Universal Studios acquired it in 1997, and Comcast's NBCUniversal took over in 2004, keeping it until 2026 when it moved to Versant.

USA built its reputation on character-driven original series like Monk (2002–2009), Psych (2006–2014), and Suits (2011–2019). The network also became the longtime cable home of WWE Raw, airing it since 1993, and carried SmackDown from 2016 to 2019. After NBCSN shut down in 2022, USA became the primary cable outlet for NBC Sports, adding Premier League soccer and NHL games until NBCSN returned in 2025. As of November 2023, USA reaches about 70 million pay-TV households, down from a peak of 100 million in 2011.[edit]